The first impression a Colin Van Ostern audience gets when the leading Democrat candidate for New Hampshire’s governorship begins speaking is his easy, friendly gregariousness. This is a politician who isn’t trying to talk over his listeners, comes across as a genuinely friendly sort, and isn’t above throwing a Red Sox, exercise program or cinema reference into his conversation.
But it’s on the important state-level issues that we’re all faced with daily that Van Ostern really shines. And along with his amazing amount of managerial experience in both the private sector (New Hampshire’s Stonyfield, Inc.) and the political one (the governor’s Executive Council), it’s no wonder that he has received the large number of endorsements from leading companies, unions and state pols from both sides of the aisle for his run. These include more than 60 state representatives and senators, US Congresswoman Annie Kuster, numerous businesses and nonprofit leaders throughout the state like Planned Parenthood, and unions including IBEW 2320, United Steelworkers, the New Hampshire State Employees Association and the United Postal Workers Union.
Van Ostern’s position points are the citizen-friendly ones that should resonate with most people who want to continue the progress our state has experienced over governor Maggie Hassan’s two terms. They include accelerating our development of solar and other renewable energy initiatives, which will generate thousands of jobs throughout every sector of the state. Van Ostern will legislate raising our ridiculous minimum wage (at $7.25 tied for the lowest in all 50 states), which keeps many of our hardest-working full-time citizens trapped at the poverty level despite all those hours spent on the job. Upping the wage will give these citizens more buying-power, as well as decrease the numbers on our various public assistance programs, a no-brainer win-win.
And you can check out Van Ostern’s detailed and comprehensive economic plan online, which contains resolutions that will enlarge upon Hassan’s already-successful state’s college tuition cuts and advanced high-tech and manufacturing job employment training. He will also expand upon her Gateway To Work program as well as actively drive our Boston-to-Concord commuter rail project to its long-awaited completion.
Finally, there are two Van Ostern votes while serving on the NH Executive Council that should stand out to Granite Staters. One was his deciding vote to restore Medicaid expansion to 50,000 of our neighbors, which Republicans on the House Financing Committee had unsuccessfully voted to end in 2015. And the other was his recent similarly-deciding vote to restore funding totaling $549,000 to Planned Parenthood, which had been terminated last year again by the GOP due to the infamous doctored/dubbed film that landed the two directors in front of a Texas judge and had temporarily cast a decidedly barbaric and dishonest light on this essential women’s health organization. Over 12,000 of New Hampshire’s female population as well as all of our Medicaid recipients will hopefully remember Colin Van Ostern’s stances on September 13 and vote for a candidate whose ideology and legislation will ALWAYS have New Hampshire’s citizens in mind.
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